For the first time in twenty years: Israel kills three Palestinian fighters via air strike near Jenin

Israeli forces killed three Palestinians late on Wednesday in a rare drone strike on a car near the village of Jalameh, north of Jenin in the northern occupied West Bank, local sources told The New Arab.

The Jenin Brigade, the local armed group gathering Palestinian fighters from various factions, identified the three men as its members.

In a statement made public through its Telegram channel, the brigade said that its killed fighters were 28-year-old Suhaib Adnan Al-Ghoul and 17-year-old Ashraf Murad Saadi, from the armed wing of the Palestinian Jihad - PIJ, and 28-year-old Mohammad Bashar Oweis, from the Fatah-affiliated Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

Israeli occupation army conducts an assassination using airstrikes in Jenin. This is the first such assassination by airstrike in the West Bank since 2005. Paramedics have not been allowed to reach the targeted car. pic.twitter.com/kLpYGIKVVR

— Nour Odeh 🇵🇸 #NojusticeNopeace (@nour_odeh) June 21, 2023

Israeli media quoted the Israeli army claiming that the three men were from a Palestinian armed cell that had just opened fire at the Israeli checkpoint near Jalameh and that it had carried out several shooting attacks against Israeli targets.

"Residents heard an explosion about three kilometres north of Jenin, then we learned that the occupation had bombed a car, and three bodies were pulled from inside it," Atta Abu Rmeileh, the local Fatah secretary in the Jenin refugee camp, told TNA.

"Alert sirens were activated in the city and the camp, as the occupation forces began to move towards the camp, but then they turned towards the location of the bombing and took the bodies," said Abu Rmeileh.

"Residents in the camp took to the streets and began to prepare to confront a possible raid," said Abu Rmeileh. "Jenin has just experienced a massacre last Monday, and the atmosphere is rife with anger."

"This is the first time in twenty years that the occupation assassinates fighters from the air in Jenin, and the first time it uses armed drones, which is a serious escalation, but it will only increase our people's will to resist," he added.

On Monday, Israeli forces killed six Palestinians, and wounded more than 90 in a raid on Jenin, while a seventh Palestinian, a 14-year-old girl, died on Wednesday of her wounds sustained during the raid. Five Israeli soldiers were also injured in confrontations with Palestinian fighters.

Following news of the assassination, hundreds of Palestinians took to the streets in Ramallah city protesting the assassination and supporting Jenin's resistance.

Ramallah |

Tens of Palestinians gather at Manarah square in support of Jenin pic.twitter.com/x5XXM5GC33

— Younis | يونس (@ytirawi) June 21, 2023

On Tuesday, Israeli far-right security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called on the Israeli government to assassinate Palestinian militants and to conduct a large-scale invasion of West Bank Palestinian cities.

Ben-Gvir's remarks came following a shooting attack by Palestinian gunmen between Nablus and Ramallah, in which four Israelis and one of the gunmen were killed.

Later on Tuesday, hundreds of Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian villages south and west of Nablus, burning more than two hectares of wheat, dozens of cars and injuring at least 15 Palestinians.

Israeli forces have been raiding Palestinian communities in the West Bank increasingly since last year, while Palestinian armed militants have been forming local groups and confronting Israeli forces, especially in Nablus and Jenin.

With Wednesday's air strike in Jenin, the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces since the beginning of 2023 rises to 177, according to the Palestinian health ministry. 52 out of the 177 Palestinians killed by Israel since the beginning of the year were killed in Jenin.